Graduation Year
Spring 2013
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Philosophy
Reader 1
S. Andrew Schroeder
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2013 Emily K. Ott
Abstract
This paper explores the nonidentity problem, an influential puzzle in modern ethics which addresses the nature of our moral responsibilities towards future generations. I begin by laying out the two conflicting intuitions comprising the problem and providing several examples to illustrate how we conceive of the moral status of future people. I then examine two versions of consequentialism, averagism and totalism, which circumvent the nonidentity problem. However, these two solutions each pose their own respective problems; thus, I argue that a modification of totalism – the critical level view – is the most viable consequentialist answer to the nonidentity problem.
Recommended Citation
Ott, Emily K., "Comparing Consequentialist Solutions to the Nonidentity Problem" (2013). CMC Senior Theses. 635.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/635
